


Dream of Grandstanding and Bravado

by morninglassofoj



Category: Haikyuu!!, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Bullying, Crossover, Day 3, M/M, Tsukkiyama Week, Yamaguchi is the light of my life, the author's just dumb, the haikyuu kids are gonna be heroes y'all, this fic isn't dead i promise
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-03
Updated: 2017-07-21
Packaged: 2018-07-19 19:13:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7374022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morninglassofoj/pseuds/morninglassofoj
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the scheme of things, Tsukishima is tired of hearing that his quirk combination is a blessing; that it'll make a great her quirk. He doesn't see why that's important to people. Why do they want to be heroes anyway?</p>
<p>Yamaguchi grew up thinking he was quirkless, but when his quirk suddenly manifests he realizes that his dream of making the world a better place actually might be possible. He can't wait to begin his education as a future hero.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Beginning of an Origin

**Author's Note:**

> Tsukkiyama Week, day 3: Crossover/Cosplay
> 
> JUST A SMALL TRIGGER WARNING FOR VIOLENCE. It's not enough in my opinion to qualify for an archive warning, but bullying gets out of hand.
> 
> My thought process on their quirks:  
> 1: Yamaguchi is the light of my life and I should definitely blow that out of proportion and make it literal.  
> 2: Tsukki is tol.  
> It's that simple people. Fight me.
> 
> The song title is from a Fall Out Boy song. It doesn't relate at all, it just sounded coll. Again, fight me.

Tsukishima Kei had never seen the allure of being a pro hero.  
It was all his classmates ever talked about. As their quirks manifested, they all declared that they’d use them to be heroes one day and protect all the people in Japan from villains. But Tsukishima didn’t really get it. He didn’t know all the people in Japan. Why would he want to protect them?  
His quirk had manifested mostly as expected. His mother was an empath and his father had a stretching quirk. He’d gotten a hodge-podge of the two like some kids tend to inherit from their parents. He was told he was blessed to have inherited both quirks; that it wasn’t exactly common to get both rather than just one. His brother, Akiteru, had only inherited the stretching, and his capabilities were supposedly much lower than their father’s.  
As far as the doctors could tell, they believed his stretching quirk would develop to be as strong-if not stronger. His parents were elated.  
His empath abilities, as far as he could tell, were pretty useless though. Whereas his mother could sense every facet of a person’s emotions with ease, how they would react to certain events or news, and even if they had the ability to even pursue their dreams, Tsukishima had only inherited the ability to sense their biggest hopes and their most crushing insecurities, and whether or not they could come true.  
He wasn’t very pleased with either of his quirks. What he saw becoming of them were a long boring future of being the person always asked to get things off of the top shelf. He was already a tall kid to begin with, and already irritated with the constant requests for help reaching things. Now people had two reasons to bother him about it. He didn’t even have the slightest clue as to how his stunted version of empath abilities would come in handy at all.  
No, Tsukishima had never understood why people strived so much to be professional heroes. But he understood even less why people strived to make the lives of others more difficult.  
That’s why, when he was walking home from school one day and he saw two of the boys from his class-ironically, two of the ones bragging the loudest about being heroes one day-picking on the small form of another boy in their class, he decided to intervene.  
As he walked over, he began to be able to decipher their taunts.  
“You little quirkless freak! Who do you think you are, even trying to talk to us?” one of them taunted.  
“Yeah!” The other chimed in, “Why do you even bother talking to anyone with your stupid, ugly freckled face? Huh?”  
“I was just saying how cool your quirks are. It won’t happen again, I’m sorry.” He heard their victim sniffle.  
When he was less than five feet from them, he cleared his throat, alerting them to his presence and causing to jump in surprise.  
“How pathetic.” He quipped in a nonplussed tone. “And you say you want to be heroes.”  
“Butt out, Stretchy boy! We’re just teaching Freckles here a lesson about respect.” The first one snapped, to a chorus of “Yeah you tell ‘em!” from the other.  
Tsukishima took a moment to regard the pair, mulling over what little he could read from them with the more useless of his two quirks. What he gathered from the first boy was too mean to use against him, even by Tsukishima’s standards-he didn’t dare meddle in family matters or whether one’s mother was disappointed in them-so he turned to the second.  
“Your quirk is useless for becoming a hero. At the track you’re on, the highest you’ll amount to is a tax accountant. But, you’re too stupid for that, so you won’t be very successful.”  
He watched as the tears began to well in his classmate’s eyes, his lip trembling a bit before he ran crying from the group.  
The other bully turned to him, snarling. Tsukishima regarded him with what he knew was his coldest glare. “Say you’re sorry.” He demanded.  
“No, really, it’s ok.” He heard the boy behind him say, his words still a little choked.  
Tsukishima scowled. “No it’s not. They owe you an apology.”  
The bully scoffed, starting to walk away. “Whatever. As if I’d apologize to a worthless little runt like him.”  
“Hey!” Tsukishima called after him, stretching his arm out to grab him roughly by the shoulder, trying to pull him back. However, the boy was just a little out of his reach, and his arm immediately lost all its strength, as his father’s did when he overexerted himself.  
The boy smirked, noticing Tsukishima’s predicament, unable to retract his arm and unable to do anything with it. His smirk widened to a terrifying grin and he took hold of Tsukishima’s limp arm, and walking farther away, stretching him way beyond he could safely manage.  
He felt his skin burn as he was stretched beyond his limits, very near to ripping and leaving him with the horrible scars he had seen on Akiteru’s arms after he had stretched too far trying to pass a note to his friend in class. He cried out violently in pain.  
“Stop, please you’re hurting him!” he heard the small boy shout as he ran between him and the boy trying to literally tear him apart, but the boy kept pulling, and Tsukishima could feel tears forming in his eyes, continuing to yell out in pain.  
He heard the bully laugh as he ran farther away, now nearing thirty meters.  
“I said, stop!” The boy screamed, bright light and heat suddenly radiating in a visual explosion from his small form.  
Tsukishima averted his eyes, feeling the heat sear his already tortured skin, and he heard the other boy scream and let go of his arm. Seconds later, Tsukishima passed out from the pain.  
He woke up in the hospital, his arm-thankfully back to its normal size-in a cast from the shoulder all the way to his hand, and a painful sunburn. His mother explained what had happened to him. The stretching had left the bones in his arm with multiple fractures. The sunburn had come from the sudden manifestation of the small boy’s, Yamaguchi Tadashi, he found out his name was, quirk.  
Yamaguchi came to visit him while in the hospital as he went through multiple treatments by recovery girls over the course of a week, bringing him his schoolwork and thanking him profusely with a smile that seemed to light up the room fixed on his face.  
Of course, he later found out that his smile did, in fact, literally light up the room. Like Tsukki, his quirk had manifested in a strange amalgamation of his parents’. His mother’s quirk allowed her to use her energy to produce light, while his father had basic telekinesis. Somehow, these two morphed together to allow Yamaguchi to manipulate light rays, and magnify them. The doctors and quirkologists had never seen anything like it.  
He didn’t have a sunburn like Tsukishima from the incident that had led to their meeting and fast friendship, but he had gained quite a few freckles. The bully, however, had sustained second degree burns. While Tsukishima believed he got what he deserved, he did not envy the boy.  
“You know, Tsukki,” Yamaguchi said one day, as they were playing in his backyard, the boy providing them some merciful shade in the hot summer sun, “I’m really glad you helped me that day. You’ll make a great hero when you grow up.”  
The words stuck with him as he grew up, and Tsukishima realized that, while he didn’t really see the allure to being a hero, he could really appreciate the draw of making others’ lives better.  
Their friendship grew stronger and stronger as they grew up, mirroring the development of their respective quirks. Tsukishima gradually increased the limit to his stretching abilities and his mother helped him hone his empath abilities and he began to see a clearer picture when he read people. He often found himself innately using this ability of Yamaguchi, validating his dreams and making sure he never felt useless again like he did before they met.  
Yamaguchi’s development was more dramatic. Quirkologists studied his abilities endlessly, and hardly a week went by when he didn’t spend hours at a time at their labs, exploring his abilities and all they were capable of. It was discovered that his quirk didn’t only extend to visible light, but to light that was invisible to humans as well, from microwave rays to gamma rays. After they discovered that, they quickly focused their research to controlling his quirk so he didn’t accidentally cause radiation poisoning when his emotions got out of control.  
Tsukishima tried to help with that, using his empath abilities to calm Yamaguchi down, or brighten his day. By the time they were finishing middle school, Yamaguchi was fully able to control his quirk.

~

It started with an off-handed remark about Yuuei.  
Tsukishima had never seen the allure of attending the prestigious hero academy. His brother had attended school there, but in the general studies department. But, remembering Yamaguchi’s words form all those years ago, he had submitted his application as well.  
Yamaguchi got in on a recommendation. The study of his quirk had caused quite a buzz among the teachers, apparently, but he still insisted on taking the entrance exam with Tsukishima. By this time, the two made quite the team, and scored quite high, only behind two boys they had never heard of.  
The two friends stood outside Yuuei, prepared for their first day of school. Yamaguchi turned to him and gave him his signature bright smile. “Ready to become heroes Tsukki?” He asked.  
Tsukishima still didn’t understand the overwhelming drive to be a pro hero. But he did somewhat understand the drive to use his abilities to help people, even if he only succeeded in helping Yamaguchi in the process.  
He smiled in response to the question, nodding, and the two walked through the front gates of Yuuei together.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *shows up a year and two weeks late with no Starbucks*  
> Ok, so my laptop broke and I just got it back today, so that's why this is so late. Please don't hate me too much. >_<  
> This chapter consists mostly of world building and introducing characters. I have five OCs in this fic because HAIKYUU HAS NO FUCKING GIRLS IN IT WTF but every other named character can be found on the Haikyuu wiki.  
> Please enjoy Tsukki and Yams' first couple of days at Yuuei!

The auditorium buzzed with avid conversation. He and Yamaguchi had grabbed a spot near the back of the auditorium next to the aisle for the two of them, but now every seat was filled. A large projector screen dominated the space over the stage, displaying the spinning Yuuei logo. Yamaguchi was chatting happily with a girl next to them with light brown hair, cut sharply across her forehead and at her shoulders. She wore a nervous smile on her face that was slowly fading away the more she talked to Yamaguchi. Kei smiled to himself; Yamaguchi tended to have that effect on most people.

He looked around, surveying the rest of the crowd. Not many were looking directly at him, so he couldn’t get a full read on them, but the ones he could see all had the same things. A hope that today would go well and a fear that it wouldn’t. Typical and boring and both possible. He noticed with a pout that the second and third years’ sections were too far off for him to get anything from them, as he was sure that he at least wouldn’t get any more boring fear.  

He felt a light tugging on his sleeve and turned to face a grinning Yamaguchi.

“Tsukki! This is Kuribayashi Runa! She’ll be in the hero program too!”

He did his best to look interested in the nervous girl ( _Fear of bad first day and hopes for a good one. Typical.)_ “Pleased to meet you. Tsukishima Kei.” She nodded in return and she and Yamaguchi returned to talking. Kei caught a few words here and there, but eventually slipped his headphones back over his ears as they waited for the Principal’s opening address. He kept his music turned off, experience teaching him that he heard more interesting conversations when people thought he wasn’t listening.

He tuned into some particularly excited whispering in front of him, where a pair of boys-well, a trio, really, but the third seemed to merely be tagging along sullenly-one with dark hair spiked up high over his head, not unlike a turnip, the other parted clean down the middle, leaned in together. The third looked over, not engaging in the conversation, but not ignoring it either.

“So who do you think the principal is? They keep it so secretive nowadays! I can’t wait to find out!” Turnip Head enthused.

“I mean, can you blame them? Remember what happened when All Might was teaching here? As soon as word got out they had countless security issues. A student was even kidnapped by villains to lure the guy into a fight.” His clean-cut friend responded, though much less energetically

“Yeah, but he was still a great teacher from what I hear, even after all that happened. Plus, that was ages ago; You’ve got to wonder why they’re still so secretive.”

Their conversation returned to a dull recounting of all the top heroes since then and Kei zoned out, waiting for the ceremony to start. It was nearly thirty minutes late now.

After staring at his lap aimlessly for another twenty minutes, the lights dimmed in the auditorium and the conversations around him cut off almost immediately, a few excited gasps audible in the now nearly silent room. Curiosity piquing, he looked up to see a familiar hero sporting a head of curly dark green hair, graying at the temples now, approach the podium. The man paused, letting the whispers die out before beginning to speak.

“Hello, and thank you all for waiting patiently,” he began, a bright smile on his face, looking around at the students sitting expectantly in front of him. “You’ll have to excuse us. Until very recently, Present Mic has been the one giving the welcome address, and in his absence, we’ve had to set up speakers and microphones.” He paused for laughter, “It hasn’t been as easy as was implied.

“But, all complications aside, it is my personal privilege to welcome you all to Yuuei!”

Cheers erupted throughout the auditorium, including a few enthusiastic and all too loud whistles. Deku let it go on for a few moments before holding his hand up.

“As you may have guessed from me currently standing up here, I have taken over the role of principal here at Yuuei.”

Another round of cheers went through the auditorium, albeit a little less loud, as it was accompanied by many excited conversations amongst all the students.

“Now, as much as I want to preserve your excitement and energy,” he continued, the same dazzling smile lighting up his face, “I’m afraid it’s in my job description to quickly go over the student guidelines and standard code of conduct for all Yuuei students. Afterwards, I’ll hand you over to the heads of your departments for a more specific briefing on our expectations of you. For starters, let’s talk about rules for the dormitories.”

Kei sighed, resigning himself to another long stretch of boredom, and plugged his headphones in, this time with music. Yamaguchi looked over at him, rolling his eyes at him already tuning it out. It was all the same school rules anyway, and Kei knew full well that Yamaguchi would relay all the information to him later.

Kei sighed once more, and leaned his head back to rest against the back of the chair. While he needed eye contact to get a specific read of people’s emotions, there were enough people surrounding him with heightened emotions that he could practically feel them vibrating around the air in the room. It was times like this when he genuinely wished he had only inherited his father’s quirk without all this empath bullshit; he was beginning to get exhausted.

He was roused once more by a loud _‘PLUS ULTRA’_ and Yamaguchi poking him gently on the arm, and he looked up to see everyone out of their seats. Deku was announcing over the speakers that students in general studies, support, management, and specialization should all follow the heads of their department to their respective buildings.

“Hero kids, stay here, but come sit in the front center section, we’ll be continuing our discussion in here.”

As the auditorium began to empty out, Kei started to inspect the other kids that made up the hero program. The first to catch his eye was a short, and very bouncy-literally-kid with bright orange hair, excitedly jumping up and down (when he jumped particularly high, Kei noted that he seemed to have springs for the bottom half of his legs) and talking to a tall kid with gray hair and an almost cat-like face. Both were bursting with enough energy to make Kei himself feel tired, and were talking to a small, blonde girl with a small half ponytail. He didn’t even need his quirk to tell she was terrified.

He continued observing, trying to guess at what his classmates’ quirks would be. There was one kid who seemed to have a black flower growing out of the top of his forehead, talking enthusiastically now with Turnip Head, who was once again accompanied by his clean-cut friend, although the third boy seemed to be off pouting in a corner. Looking to his right, he saw Yamaguchi and the girl-he had already forgotten her name-talking eagerly. They seemed to be comparing quirks, as the girl held in her hand what appeared to be a small hologram of a Pokémon. Yamaguchi had always been more into the game than Kei had, but he was fairly sure said hologram was a jigglypuff. The two laughed as it crawled out of her hand and up her arm to sit on top of her head and play with her hair. Yamaguchi in turn showed off his quirk by bending the light around them so the space by their feet was pitch black. To say the look on her face was stunned was a vast understatement.

Above all the ruckus, someone clearing their throat could be heard, and everyone looked up to see that quite a few more people had joined Deku on the stage. He sat down at the front of the stage, legs dangling off the edge as he rested his weight on his one arm, and the others followed suit. All the students took their seat and went back to looking at the people on stage with unconcealed admiration as they had during his speech earlier. Even Kei found himself a little star-stuck. It had been years since the once top hero had been active. After he lost his arm, though still entirely capable of fighting villains, he had seemed to pass the torch on to the other heroes at the time. Though their age was beginning to show on their faces, Kei remembered many of their faces from history lessons.

“Well, as you all might-“ he paused to chuckle at his own joke, earning quite a few groans from the other adults on the stage and a playful shove from the man on his left whom Kei was certain was Red Riot. “have suspected, in addition to being Yuuei’s principal, I also split my time as the head of the hero department. Now, I will leave it to your homeroom teachers to inform you of the specific rules for the hero classes, but I’m afraid our department has a bit of a serious talk to have.”

The students around him shifted uncomfortably in their seats, but kept their attention on the principal.

“You all have heard the tales of my colleagues and I’s time here at Yuuei. After all, we did have quite the penchant for attracting attention and trouble alike. Now if you will allow an old man to reminisce, Japan was very different forty years ago when we were all students. Villain attacks happened multiple times a day, causing damage that spread blocks wide and endangering many citizens. It often took a group of five to ten heroes to take care of any attack. Of course, there was also a large amount of heroes in the business, so manpower wasn’t ever truly an issue, and there was always someone available and nearby who was ready to race to the scene.

But there was also a tense air of competition surrounding hero work. Heroes were divided into different companies and agencies and only trained to work in tandem with those in their agency. On scene, hero efforts were often disjointed, and took more effort than necessary to bring down villains. At the time, of course, the rank system was still in place, which caused even more unnecessary tension.”

A few of the heroes on stage exchanged high-fives, and Kei recalled learning in class how their generation of heroes had been the ones to do away with the ranking system, and the subsequent rise in productivity amongst heroes. Though the entire speech so far had an uncanny resemblance to a history lesson, he would be lying if he said the mere presence of Deku, the once top hero, kept everyone enthralled.

“But, our world has changed beyond that since then. Villains rarely make large efforts en masse anymore, which has led to a much lower rate of infrastructural damage and a higher quality of life all across the nation.” He looked conspiratorially side to side and cupped his hand to his mouth and stage whispered “We up here like to think we’re personally responsible for that.” A few snickers were heard around the room, mostly from the stage. The woman on Deku’s right, who Kei was relatively certain was Froppy, elbowed the man and croaked for him to get back on track, fixing him with a blank stare that was unmoved by the hero’s famous smile.  

“Society has changed beyond villain activity though. Even though, in the span of history, quirks have only been around for a small amount of time, some scientists would argue that it seems that they are already disappearing. This information has been kept from the public mostly until more is known about the situation, but over the last twenty years, the quirkless percent of the world has risen to nearly fifty percent.”

He paused once more to let the information sink in as confusion and then concern spread through the students. Gasps and whispers could be heard once more, most of it, Kei assumed, was probably talk of how they had noticed many of their friends were quirkless. Yamaguchi himself seemed relatively unsurprised. Since his quirk took so long to visibly manifest, though they never really talked about it, Kei assumed he may have gotten this talk when he was much younger.

This time, Deku let the noise die out on its own before continuing. “In addition to the apparent disappearance of quirks, quirks themselves are becoming more complicated. When we all attended Yuuei, it was incredibly rare, possibly even unheard of, to have a mix of your parents’ quirks. My friend Shouto,” He paused, gesturing to the man who was without a doubt said hero (it was awfully hard to remain anonymous with that hair) who gave a slight nod, even though his expression remained quite stoic, “As you all know, was the first recognized hero to have a mix of his parents’ quirks.

“Now, for demonstration’s sake, I would like you to raise your hand if you yourself have been told you have a mix of your parents’ quirks.”

Out of the roughly forty students assembled, Kei would guess that, including Yamaguchi and himself, there were as many as fifteen kids with their hands raised. More surprised murmurs broke out, not only from the students.

“Just as I suspected,” Deku mused, pausing and clearing his throat before continuing.

“So, in light of all of these changes taking place in our society, though these changes to quirks themselves in both number and complexity haven’t been announced to anyone, a large part of the population was beginning to feel unsafe. You see, as I mentioned earlier, villain attacks used to be far more frequent than they are now. But, as the villains changed, attacking less, becoming less organized and dangerous…Heroes stayed the same. The same amount of heroes showed up to a scene and, although they worked together far better than they had before, the same amount of damage to the scene tended to remain the same. So…” He paused once more, appearing to swallow a lump in his throat, “the government decided to take action, which is the reason we have to have this talk today.”

“Now, this was all kept neatly under wraps, and still is, and not many of you may know about it unless you have a parent or sibling who is a hero, but they created an organization to monitor and oversee hero activity. It’s called, the Hero Regulation Bureau.”

There was a moment of confused silence. Not many of the students to knew how to respond.

“For the most part,” Deku continued, “we believe they are on the right side. Granted, they are a new agency, only around for fifteen years, so there are still growing pains from time to time, just as there are any time a change is made in government policy. Because of them, there have been a few new required classes added to your curriculum as prospective heroes. In addition, we have added a new department of study, specialization, but more on that later.

“But, above all else, I must explain their viewpoint and how it directly affects all of you. Most of you, I’m assuming, are familiar with the old saying ‘ _the world could always use more heroes?_ ’”

Most of the students gave a nod of agreement.

“Well,” Deku continued, his voice breaking a bit, “right now, we live in a world that seems to believe it doesn’t, which is where the HRB comes in. Heroes are no longer divided into agencies, but all work under the government, and they decide which heroes would best be suited to respond to which situations.

“In addition,” the man broke eye contact with his students for the first time, “Heroes with quirks that have a propensity to cause more damage are encouraged to retire, or are rarely called upon.”

A man whom Kei didn’t recognize on the far end of the stage with spiky blonde hair grunted, clenching his fists and turning away.

Deku began speaking again. “There are going to be more obstacles in your way than ever before. Requirements to get a permit and eventually your license are much higher. There are more classes expected of you. And, simply put, in the eyes of the HRB, failure, under any circumstance, is never an option.

“In addition, as I mentioned before, a new department has been added to our school: Specialization. Its curriculum is very similar to that of the hero department, but it focuses on finding a place where each student’s quirk can be best applied to serving Japan.” He spoke as if the very idea left a sour taste in his mouth. “and students are...heavily encouraged to go into the career path best suited to them.

“As a new policy of the HRB, any student who fails a hero specific course, or whose quirk doesn’t meet regulations, will be transferred into specialization, rather than general studies as before.

“I know this is not the most welcoming welcome speech you children have ever received. However, I believe it necessary that we lay out your entire situation as it stands in front of you. That way, you can focus all of your efforts towards being as successful as you can be here, for, I’m afraid there are more eyes on you and your performance than have been on any other class before you.”

The man seems to be working up the nerve to say what comes next, and it’s nearly a full minute before he spoke again.

“Based on where we believe the HRB is headed, we, as a staff, believe it is highly likely that you all will be the last class in our hero program.”

A beat of total silence passed through the room as the information sunk in for everyone in the room, and Kei felt almost suffocated by the various stages of confusion, worry, and outrage that consumed every single person in the room. He looked up to see Deku with tears streaming freely down his face. Though that in and of itself was not unusual, Kei couldn’t help but think that the hero who was famous for always wearing a smile, even in the face of extreme adversity, had never looked more somber.

 

~

The rest of the introductory session passed in a blur. There was an opportunity for students to ask questions, but it seemed everyone had been stunned into silence. Kei had long since removed his glasses, not even risking eye contact with anyone in the group as their homeroom teacher guided them to the 1-a dormitory building. With his mother’s training it would now barely take a glance for him to be hit full on by the gloomy attitude surrounding him now, and not for the first time, he thanked whatever deity did or didn’t exist for his bad vision.

He remembered how Akiteru had described the dorms when he called home as a student at Yuuei and all the late nights up studying with his friends in his class. They were always bustling with the energy of all the kids inside, full of excitement and hope for the future. Looking around at everyone while they received their room assignments, Kei wondered if theirs would be like that, or if it would always be this quiet. Would they come home from an exhaustive day of training and stay downstairs, congratulating each other and sharing ideas on ways to improve? Or would they silently retreat upstairs to pour what little they had left in them into their studies?

As he heard his name being called, he mentally scolded himself for getting so caught up in the emotions of his classmates. He wasn’t here for the friendships, anyway. He was here for… What _was_ he here for? To become a pro hero? He wasn’t even sure if he was here for that reason in the first place.

He let these thoughts jumble around in his head as he climbed the stairs. His belongings had already been moved into his room, although his books were out of order. Kei wondered if it had all been moved here by someone’s quirk. That would be a pretty specific niche for a quirk to fill.

He swallowed thickly as the thought struck him that said person might have been given such a mundane job through the specialization program.

The books on his shelf caught his attention once more and he set to organizing them. He needed a distraction after all. Book titles and the experiences related to them passed through his mind as he put them in their proper places. There were the various books about dinosaurs, bugs, birds, and other animals that he and Yamaguchi had obsessed over in elementary school, the spines worn and flexible. Various series of books he read over the years and a good dozen that he hadn’t read yet.

Sitting back to look at the nearly full bookshelf, he laughed at how naïve he had been only earlier this week. As if he would have the time to read any new books while he was here. No matter how confident he was in his ability to pass all his classes, the stakes were higher now. The road before him as he saw it now made the struggle and stress he expected almost not seem worth it.

Because why was he here?

It seemed useless to put that much time and effort into something he wasn’t even sure he wanted. But, he wasn’t sure what he wanted anyway. He certainly didn’t want to be in the specialization department, nor in just general studies. Another school didn’t sound appealing either. Maybe he was just here because being anywhere else would be…

He flopped backwards onto the floor, groaning.

“Pathetic,” he whispered to himself.

He slid his glasses off his face, pinching the bridge of his nose. No. Being here could be pathetic too. He could be pathetic here, given the chance. But…

His phone vibrated. Holding it close to his face, he could barely see Yamaguchi’s name flashing under the text icon. He sighed.

No, being pathetic wasn’t an option.

~

Perhaps due to the heavy nature of the day before, classes had been scheduled to start the following day. That, or maybe Kei was overthinking things and it was just to ensure everyone got moved in properly before they got to work.

Either way, Kei found himself trying not to yawn as he got ready for the day. It wasn’t even a week into the school year and the other two boys on his floor seemed to have already developed a blood feud. When he left that morning, they were arguing about milk of all things. He rushed down the stairs before they got the idea that he might want to make small talk of all things.

Yamaguchi was waiting for him when he got to the common area, nearly vibrating with excitement.

“Morning, Tsukki,” he chirped as they set off across Yuuei’s expansive grounds. “What do you think they have in store for us today?”

Kei chuckled, rolling his eyes, “It’s a high school, Yamaguchi. We’ll probably sit in a circle and introduce ourselves and then sit through another shitty welcome speech that will crush our spirit even more.”

Yamaguchi snorted in response. “Yeah that was something. But seriously, this is Yuuei! It’s a legendary hero school! You can’t tell me you think it’ll just be normal.”

“Well, we still have to learn math like any other high school. And literature, and history and science,”

“Tsukki, we fought giant robots as part of the entrance exam,” his friend interjected, “Do other high schools do that?”

Kei muttered a quick ‘touché’ as they walked into the 1-A classroom. Not many others were there yet considering they only had fifteen minutes until class started. Two boys who Yamaguchi identified as the other two boys on his floor, Shibayama and Hyakuzawa, were talking near the blackboard and waved warmly at Yamaguchi when he walked in. Turnip head and Turnip friend were talking excitedly towards the back of the class, and a small group of girls were gathered in the front.

Kirishima- sensei- it was still a bit disorienting to be calling Red Riot by his civilian name- was nowhere to be found, but it seemed he had left a seating chart on the board along with a list of student number assignments. Kei sighed in relief to see he was in the back of the class. At least, while they were in here, he could guarantee he wouldn’t have to worry about any empath bullshit disrupting his learning.

He looked towards the door as two familiar voices, still yelling, got closer.

No. He’d only have to worry about that.

As the clock ticked closer to eight, more and more students filled the room, eventually settling into their assigned seat. The room had a palpable aura of giddy excitement that buzzed around Kei’s head, even when he removed his glasses, so he assumed he was contributing to it as well, despite it all. Yamaguchi shot him a bright smile from a few desks over as he talked to the people around him.

The bell rang, silencing everyone for a moment. Their teacher had still yet to arrive, and some of his classmates seemed poised as if they were expecting a surprise attack of some sort. But, as the moment wore on, the class returned to their conversations, if a bit more subdued than before. Kei could hear the two arguing boys from his floor, and guessed that they probably sat close together, and was sure that didn’t bode well.

After a few minutes, the classroom door slammed open, revealing Red Riot- _Kirishima-sensei-_ in a crimson tracksuit with a grin on his face that Kei couldn’t help but think looked slightly threatening. He tried to convince himself it was the sharp teeth, but a quick read on the man revealed his current desire was to make them heroes at all cost…and that it was entirely achievable.

“Did everyone see their student number on the board?” the man asked, grin not falling as the class nodded in unison. “Ok, then if you’ll look to your left you’ll see numbered lockers. These correspond to your student number and have your gym uniforms inside. The locker rooms are across the hall, boy on the left, girls on the right. Everyone get changed and meet in the first-floor gym with something to take notes with and on.” His smile grew almost imperceptibly. “It’s time for your first test.”

Amidst the scramble for everyone to gather their things, Kei only barely managed to catch Yamaguchi’s whispered ‘I told you so.’

~

If he got nothing else out of his time at Yuuei, Kei supposed he would at least be able to confirm the rumors that the school truly did go all out on everything.

At first glance, the gym was hardly what he’d call a gym. It was at least three times the size of any other he’d seen and set up to mimic a small, suburban neighborhood, including cars, trees, and yard supplies. There was even a basketball halfway through rolling down the street.

Once everybody had gathered, Kirishima whistled loudly to get their attention.

“Today, you will be completing a simple exercise. Simple, in the fact that there is no real objective to complete. The rest of it is just as difficult as you make it.

“You will complete this exercise in four groups, determined by which floor in the dorms you live on, and you will be participating in an every-man-for-himself brawl.”

A small gasp went through the crowd of students, but none paused to speak and risk missing any details.

“This exercise will serve quite a few purposes, but the main reason for it is to take advantage of our current situation as a group. Today is one of the only days you will experience when you will not be intimately familiar with the quirks of those around you, thus, this is the closest we can come at this level to simulating a real-life villain encounter. You will know next to nothing about your opponents other than the fact that they are here, and so are you.

“In addition, it is my personal opinion that there is only one better way to learn about a person’s quirk besides fighting them, and that is by growing up with them.” Kei looked to his right to see Yamaguchi was looking at him too, smirking at their teacher’s words, “And it’s a little late for that.” He paused as the class chuckled nervously with him.

“Finally, as I mentioned earlier, you will be split into groups. Therefore, everybody not currently fighting will be upstairs with me in the observation room taking notes based on what they see.” He gestured to a large window in the wall facing the street. “Since this whole thing is about getting to know everyone’s quirk by observation, please, don’t hesitate to be a show off. Not only is it in the best interest of your peers,” he paused once more, chuckling to himself again, “it may be your only chance for a while.

“Does everyone understand?” he asked, looking around for any confused faces. Finding none, he continued, looking down at a clipboard he held in his hands. “Then we’ll start with floor two. Hinata Shoyou, Kageyama Tobio, Kuribayashi Runa, Tsukishima Kei, and Watanuki Keiana, you’re up. Everyone else, follow me upstairs. Floor two, take some time to prepare yourselves.

Their instructor collected their supplies, then proceeded to escort the class upstairs. Yamaguchi gave Kei a thumbs-up as he and the rest of the class disappeared up the gym stairs. Remaining downstairs were, of course, the two boys from his side of the floor-they were already arguing again, though it seemed more like trash talking now-Kuribayashi, the girl whom Yamaguchi had befriended at the welcome ceremony, and another girl who regrettably had no outward indicators of her quirk. Without hesitation, Kuribayashi ran down the neighborhood street and disappeared behind a house a few moments later. The other girl was also gone, though the two boys were still stood in the same place.

Sighing, Kei took off towards the neighborhood too, running over what he knew about his opponents and his surroundings. Spring boy’s quirk was obvious, unless he, like himself, had a combination of his parents’ quirks. He already knew Kuribayashi’s to some extent, or at least suspected he would recognize it. Most of the roofs of the houses were short enough for him to get to with minimal stretching, and he could likely reach the rafters of the gym if he took a running jump from one. Either way, he had a semi-reliable escape plan. He noticed as he passed the yards that some were full of things to use. The entire scene looked as if the neighborhood had been abandoned in the middle of the day, when everyone was outside.

Suddenly, Kirishima’s voice echoed over the speaker system. “Ok, you will have five minutes. I want a good clean fight. Quirks are obviously encouraged, but, also obviously, don’t do anything lethal. We have a recovery girl on staff, but she’s not a miracle worker. For anyone who is concerned they don’t have a combat friendly quirk, hopefully you will also demonstrate your resourcefulness with what is given to you by your surroundings.”

The man paused, and Kei watched through the glass barrier to the observation room as he turned to the students, notebooks and pencils at the ready, behind him.

“Now, everybody, help me count them off!” The class joined in and Kei caught Yamaguchi’s eye before he turned to run down a space between two houses.

“Three…

“Two…

“One…

“Plus Ultra!”

At the sound of a whistle blowing, Kei stretched his arms out to grab the edge of the roof closest to him, pulling himself up to get a better vantage point. Mopey Boy and Spring boy were still in the same place, though they seemed to actually be fighting now, with the redhead using his quirk to bounce out of reach before dashing by and landing a blow on his opponent. After trading a few punches, the taller of the two stopped short, pressing his hands to his temples and seeming to draw in on himself.

Spring Boy’s next jump rocketed him over Kei’s head and into a swimming pool- _they really thought of everything_ -behind the house he was on. He met eyes with the black-haired boy from that street briefly before the other set off in the direction of Kuribayashi. Kei made a mental note that that probably meant he couldn’t get up here with whatever the hell his quirk was.

He heard a bird-like screech from behind him and turned to see that it was, in fact, a bird. A glowing blue and translucent bird, currently making a dive straight for him, claws outstretched.

Deciding now was the tie to execute his plan from before, Kei took a running leap off the side of the building, stretching his legs as he jumped before stretching his arms to catch the lowest beam on the ceiling and pulling himself up. The bird of course followed him, and he supposed he should have anticipated that. Letting himself dangle by one arm, he swung himself at the bird, which he now recognized as yet another Pokémon, though not one he was familiar with, kicking out at it just as it split into two.

He only managed to hit one of them, but he knew enough about birds to know that, had it been real, he would have felt very guilty for killing it, and it shattered into small particles of light before vanishing quickly. He was surprised by how solid and real it felt. Meanwhile, the other seemed to have honed in on a different target and swooped down into a nosedive towards spring boy, now soaked and running off in the same direction as all the others. The redhead let out a surprised squawk, not unlike the bird itself, and quickly jumped through the window of one of the houses.

As Kei pulled up to steady himself on the rafter, he took another moment to marvel at the detail whoever was in charge of the gyms had put into this exercise.

Below him, he heard a loud, sustained shriek, and for a moment worried the boy had in fact been caught by the bird. But then, he felt his ankles get hit by something hard and he was falling towards the ground, lucking activating his quirk to somewhat catch himself, but he still had the wind knocked out of him as he landed on his back, looking up at the other girl from before, who was holding a baseball bat, and tossing a baseball up and down in her hand.

“You really ought to hold on better,” she commented, smirking at him.

Wheezing to catch his breath, Kei rapidly stretched a leg out to knock her off balance, causing her to drop the baseball, and clambered to his feet, taking a defensive stance, moving away as she cupped a hand around her mouth and let out another one of the high-pitched shrieks before grinning and coming at him, baseball bat raised.

Kei dodged, but not before she whacked him on the back of his knees, causing him to stumble. As she raised her hand to her mouth again, Kei instinctively stretched both his legs and arms, pushing her away from him, and him away from her in turn.

Her fighting was clumsy, and she paused between each move, almost like a game of chess to screech before coming at him full force. Her quirk, echolocation based it seemed, led her to make a few unexpected moves, such as lunge for his right hand to bend back the fingers he had broken earlier that summer. But, despite all that, she was still sloppy, and Kei made quick work to knock her down before he quickly used his quirk to escape from her to another rooftop, where he saw spring boy.

The short redhead saw him too, and was already bouncing around him, never stopping and making it nearly impossible to hit, but when he did, Kei pushed him roughly to the other side of the room, content with himself until the other boy took a stance similar to a sprinter preparing to run.

He recoiled sharply before launching himself straight into Kei’s abdomen, sending them both flying off the roof, landing in some bushes across the street. The two recovered quickly and picked up where they left off. As they danced around each other, Kei saw a threatening sight behind them as what appeared to be the three velociraptors from Jurassic Park running towards them, Kuribayashi not far behind.

After landing a hold on the boy in front of him, he flung him towards the approaching pack and set off in the opposite direction only to come to the other girl and emo incarnate boy running at each other. The boy’s hand to hand combat was much more efficient than hers, so he seemed to be holding his own easily until he stepped away to repeat the focusing routine from before.

The next shriek she let out allowed her to land three blows to his abdomen and lower back that left him sinking to his knees, groaning.

Spring boy suddenly shot past, managing to clothesline the girl in the process and she was on her knees as well. With the dinosaurs in hot pursuit, he coiled up before jumping high in the air, landing hard on one of their backs, shattering it into momentary stardust.

Sensing an opening, Kei dashed toward Kuribayashi, breaking her focus from her projections. As he approached she made a few rapid movements with her hands, and suddenly there were two more of her dashing to meet him as well, but he ignored them in favor of pursuing the girl behind them.

As they all dodged and weaved between each other in the middle of the street, landing successful punches and kicks here and there, and receiving them in turn. A quick focus from the black-haired boy only earned him a velociraptor twice the size and double the speed, leaving him scrambling for a set of golf clubs after he realized his error.

Kuribayashi’s fighting was decent as well, though mainly aided by her ability to create more projections as they were destroyed.

Kei could hear spring boy bouncing around behind them, accompanied by the occasional shriek and frustrated snarl of the girl he was fighting.

Right as he felt he was getting the upper hand in their fight, summoned yet another bird, this one just picking her up and carrying her away faster than he could stretch to catch her. To his right, he heard the quiet swish of a hologram being destroyed and he looked over to see mopey boy running towards him.

Instinctively, Kei reached out his arms to stop the boy in his tracks before he reached him, but suddenly felt himself trapped in the boy’s gaze as his eyes bore into him. With a start, kei realized that, although he had long since stopped consciously stretching his arms, they were still extending as the boy walked calmly to him.

His arms were approaching their limit, but try as he might, he could not stop their motion. Under the weight of the other’s stare, he also felt the other half of his quirk activating, and suddenly he heard the same desire echoing over and over in his head.

_WIN. WIN. WIN. WIN. WIN. WIN. WIN. WIN._

Even though there was nothing to win here, as Kirishima-sensei had instructed, his quirk told him that this outcome was incredibly plausible.

His arms reached their limit, going limp and beginning to visibly show the strain on his skin, though they continued to stretch.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Kei yelled at the boy, still approaching him as his arms began to burn and his head began to pound as ‘ _WIN. WIN. WIN._ ’ continued to echo through his brain.

Just as he felt his skin beginning to tear, a large, blue butterfly flew in front of his opponent’s face, breaking his incessant glare, and Kei felt his arms mercifully stop moving and begin the long process of retracting once they gone beyond their capabilities.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaand, time!” Red Riot’s voice echoed mercifully over the loud speaker, and Kei let himself sink to his knees, making an effort to massage his temples with his shoulders.

“If you are able, make your way over to recovery girl, and then report upstairs for a quick debriefing.”

Kei rose to his feet and shakily walked over to the small lady waiting for them by the stairs, his arms dragging slightly behind him. As he inspected them, he was relieved to see nothing too bad had happened. The thin skin in the crooks of his elbows had split, but he couldn’t feel any breaks, thankfully.

After a quick, uncomfortably wet kiss from the recovery girl, his arms returned to their normal length, though she still insisted on bandaging them and forbidding him from using his quirk for the rest of the day. Once upstairs, Kirishima had the five of them line up in front of the class, seated in bleachers.

“Now, introduce yourselves and give a brief explanation of your quirk to your classmates.”

The redheaded spring boy stepped forward first. “My name is Hinata Shoyou, and my quirk is the lower half of my legs are springs. They allow me to jump really high and to move really fast.”

He was handed his notebook and pencil and took a seat corresponding to his seat in class.

Mopey boy was next. “Kageyama Tobio. My quirk is quirk enhancement.”

The rest of the class waited a beat for him to offer more information, but instead, he quickly collected his things from Kirishima and took his seat.

Kuribayashi stepped forward, back to her nervous self. “Hi!” She gave an awkward wave before tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, “I’m Kuribayashi Runa, and my quirk is producing hard-light holograms. They act independently for the most part, and I can produce up to five while still doing other activities, but after that I need to be meditating, but I have more control then and I can produce up to twenty.”

The class nodded in impressed acknowledgement, hurriedly scribbling down the particulars of her quirk, and the girl hurried to her seat and began writing as well.

The next girl stepped forward confidently, and Kei now realized she was quite tall, very near to his own height. “I’m Watanuki Keiana, and my quirk is echolocation that allows me to see what someone’s current weakest spot is.” She spoke very loudly, even when not using her quirk and made her way to her seat, plopping down directly next to Kei’s own spot.

Finally, he stepped forward. “My name is Tsukishima Kei, and my quirk is elasticity. I can stretch all of my limbs up to a certain limit until they go limp and I can no longer move them on my own.”

Kirishima smiled, handing him his notebook and gesturing for him to take his seat, and Yamaguchi sent him a look that was half confused, half concerned, before turning his attention back to their teacher.

“Okay, floor three is next! Goshiki Tsutomu, Inuoka Sou, Koganegawa Kanji, Ogawa Dai, and Suzumeda Kaori, you’re up. Go get prepared!”

A kid with an unattractive bowl cut, another with brown hair that stuck straight up, one who seemed to have an ivy leaf growing out of his forehead, a kid with short, cropped hair and long pointy nails, and a smiling girl with light brown hair stood and made their way to the main room of the gym.

After five minutes was over, they too came up to introduce themselves.

“I’m Goshiki Tsutomu, and my quirk is shadow walking. I can travel through shadows, and wither sneak up on enemies or escape them.”

“Hello there! I’m Inuoka Sou, and my quirk allows me to slow down an opponent’s response time and motions in general after I make contact with them!”

“I’m Koganegawa Kanji, and I can make vines grow anywhere as long as I’m well hydrated, and I always make sure to be hydrated!”

“Hey everybody, My name is Ogawa Dai and I can summon any arthropod by tapping my nails against a solid surface and control their actions as well. Or, I guess it’s more of a suggestion, but they usually mind pretty well, but lobsters can be stubborn. Spiders are really willing to help; I think it’s because they just want friends.”

A collective shiver went through the class after their description.

“I’m Suzumeda Kaori, and my quirk is my ability to manipulate my own timeline to counteract anything that happens. Please don’t ask too many questions about it. It brings up even more questions that just can’t be answered.”

Floor four was next, featuring Turnip Head and his friends, the gray-haired boy with cat like eyes, a girl with strikingly black and white striped hair and a vibrant tattoo of a white tigress the almost seemed to be moving spanning her right arm to her shoulder blades, and the small, nervous blonde girl who seemed to be trembling just by having eyes focused on her.

“I’m Kindaichi Yuutarou, and my quirk is armor. My hair is metal and can extend over my entire body to create a suit of armor to protect me.”

“Kunimi Akira, and I can drastically manipulate my body temperature.”

“I’m Haiba Lev, and I’m going to be the next top hero! My quirk is catlike. I have amazing night vision, retractable claws, and amazing hearing. Also, my dad has a light weight quirk, so I can climb walls with my claws and it’s pretty awesome!”

“I’m Yachi Hitoka and I can manipulate air streams, but I’m not very strong yet, and I don’t have very good control when I’m nervous.”

“My name is Ikito Seina and I can summon the white tiger in my tattoo to protect and fight for me, and it feels like the pain of ripping a bandage off, and the pain increases the longer she’s out. I am limited only by my pain tolerance.”

Finally, they got to the fifth floor, which consisted of Yamaguchi, the other boys, Hyakuzawa and Shibayama, and two girls. One with eyes entirely pitch black and far too keen for Kei’s liking, the other with hair cut close to her head, a jarring shade of highlighter yellow and sharp barbs all over her body extending from where her bones were most prominent.

Their fight was the most interesting so far, in Kei’s opinion. At first, Yamaguchi seemed to struggle to find a way to use his quirk effectively in combat without seriously injuring anyone, but he eventually landed on a technique that involved temporarily blinding his opponents and landing blows before they could see again.

Hyakuzawa had a quirk that let him proportionally alter his height, up to nearly the height of the gym’s ceiling and down to a small enough size that Kei lost track of him a few times.

Shibayama’s wasn’t immediately apparent until he explained to that class that any injury he received was also inflicted upon the person dealing it. Despite being very obviously shy, the boy rushed into fights exactly as expected, and effectively countered Yamaguchi’s method for a while.

The girl with the dark eyes, Asaka Noriko, stayed mostly up on the rooftops, having gathered what seemed like ever ball in the entire set up, making calculated throws that often left the recipients stumbling for a moment afterward. Though Hyakuzawa was able to continuously chase her from different rooftops, she was quick to recover and continued pelting the others from above, later telling the class that she had the combination of both of her parent’s focusing vision quirks.

The other girl, Miyabe Rin, seemed to have an electricity quirk, mainly conducted by the spikes covering her body. She later explained how she was unaffected by Shibayama’s quirk due to the core of her bones being copper and already conducting electricity, so any extra didn’t affect her.

Watching their fight was fascinating to see so many be able to counter each other specifically and change their fighting style accordingly, and Kei could feel the rest of the class being drawn in by it as well. After the five minutes had passed, and all questions had been answered, the five returned to their seats, obviously exhilarated by the activity.

Kirishima clapped his hands a few times to cut off the conversations that had begun to develop amongst the class, and began to debrief them.

“So, now that you have at least an idea of what your fellow classmates are capable of, let’s get down to the actual assignment part of this.

“Obviously, as you were told yesterday, one of the primary goals of the HRB is for all heroes to be able to work together effectively and to the best of their abilities. If you can’t do that, I’m going to be up front with you kids, you could very quickly be out of the job.

“So, this assignment will be the only one I will give you all year, and your principal, as well as the rest of the staff here all agree it is one of the most important things you can do to prepare yourselves for the real world. Based on what you’ve observed today, and how you see your peers develop around you, I want you to keep a detailed journal about each person around you. Make note of their strengths, as well as their weaknesses. How their quirk can work well with yours, and how they can work against each other. Ways that you can improve yourself to work better with any person in any situation. If you take nothing else away from your time here, you need to be able to work well with anyone you are paired with.”

He took a moment for his words to take effect before dismissing everyone to get changed and head back to their classroom.

In the locker room, Kei gently removed the Yuuei jumpsuit, careful not to disturb the bandages on his arms as everyone showered and changed back into their uniforms. Yamaguchi shot him a concerned look as he struggled slightly to put on the jacket, to which he shrugged in response, aware pf the relative silence surrounding them.

Walking back to class, his friend took a breath, the same confused expression on his face from after Kei finished the test from earlier. “Tsukki, why-“

“Later.” Kei interrupted, already anticipating the question.

They walked the rest of the way in uncomfortable silence, taking their respective seats in the back of the class as the rest of the students filed in.

The remainder of the day was spent closer to how Kei had anticipated. They were introduced to their other instructors, all top heroes from the same time period as Deku, all Yuuei graduates, who explained what classes they’d be teaching, aside from the standard core classes, and the extra courses that had been added by the HRB’s requirements.

There was quirkless, or hand-to-hand combat, to minimize the damage to infrastructure, taught by Tailman. Froppy taught their situational awareness class, geared toward making everyone aware of the many different priorities and roles to fill in a villain situation. Creati taught the world context class, which would give them a more in depth understanding of the how hero work now coincided with other vocations, in addition to the changing roles of heroes as time went on. In addition, there was an advanced quirk development class, taught by Deku himself, as well as Tsukuyomi, Ingenium, Uravity, and Shouto, though those five instructors were not present.

The corresponding syllabi laid out all that would be expected of them for the next semester, and Kei saw a few students wince at the workload they could expect, though the general emotion of the room was blessedly relaxed. Before they knew it, four o’clock had come and gone, and they were all walking excitedly back to the dorms, new textbooks and supplies in tow.

Kei sat down at the desk in his room, looking down at the notes he had made this morning. The first day of school was always a bit lacking in content, and left him with nothing to do afterward. Especially a school like Yuuei, where they couldn’t leave campus. For lack of anything else to do, he decided to start organizing one of his spirals into a specifically classmate notebook. If this was going to be a year-long project, the least he could do was ensure it was organized.

Next door, he heard Kageyama and Hinata begin bickering, but he took it as a good sign that it sounded less aggressive than before, even if the number of times ‘dumbass’ was said was still high. Just as he was grabbing his headphones to drown out the noise, his phone buzzed.

**From: Yamaguchi**

Homework in my room? : )

Kei shot back an agreement and gathered his notebook, climbing the stairs to the fifth floor and leaving the ruckus of his floormates behind.

Yamaguchi answered the door practically before Kei had even raised his hand to knock. His room looked much the same as his one at home, though missing the small touches that had been there since he was a child like the stars on the ceiling or dinosaur stickers that his mother had tried and failed to get off of his dresser drawers. Kei smiled at the familiarity; his own room looked more like Akiteru’s than his own, since they were reusing the furniture he had had in the dorms.

The door shut loudly behind him and he turned to see Yamaguchi regarding him with that same confused look, albeit a bit more upset now than before.

“Tsukki,” he began, tone almost like a warning. Kei knew what was coming. After all these years, even if he was the one with an empath quirk, Yamaguchi seemed to be the one with a knack for telling if people were lying to him.

“Why didn’t you tell everybody about the rest of your quirk?” he asked, as his expression morphed into one more of concern.

Kei tried to wave the question off, shrugging and moving to sit on the floor, notebook laid out in front of him. “It’s not relevant to hero work. It’ll only get in the way of expanding my abilities if I suddenly have to focus on improving in both.”

Yamaguchi huffed in response, sitting down next to him and pulling his notes out of his backpack as well.

“Besides,” Kei continued, “It’s not like I can do anything with it, so why bother?”

“Tsukki!” Yamaguchi scolded, “You’re missing the point!”

“The point, Yamaguchi, is to become heroes. When’s the last time you saw a hero take down a villain using his ability to see that they were never loved by their mother and robbing banks is a coping mechanism?” Kei stated, looking defiantly down at his notes with as straight a face as he could manage.

“No, Tsukki.” His friend retorted, “Becoming heroes is the goal, the end result. The point, right now, is to get to know each other’s quirks and learn to work together. You’re keeping half of your potential to yourself and it’s going to hurt everyone in the long run.”

Kei snorted, still refusing to look up. “And how will it do that? I don’t need to tell everyone about my stupid empath quirk in order to use it. It’s not going to get in the way.”

“The teachers all know about your quirk, you know that right? They know you’re lying. I saw how Red Riot looked at you as you walked back to your seat. They’ll think you’re up to something; You could get in serious trouble.”

Kei groaned, beginning to get frustrated. “Then I’ll meet with him after class tomorrow and explain-“

“And explain what, Tsukki?” Yamaguchi demanded, his hands clenched tightly into fists. “What do you need to explain to them? That you’re only going to give fifty percent of your best and still expect to make it?”

“No, I… it’s more complicated than that, Yamaguchi.” Kei groaned, rubbing his temples.

“Then explain it to me.” Yamaguchi said, much quieter.

Kei sighed, looking at the ceiling before responding. “You heard what Deku said yesterday. It’s going to be harder than ever to become heroes. Everyone in our class wants that more than anything and you know that I see it every time I look at them, and that it is entirely possible. But that can change. I’ve seen it change. Someone can be fully capable of achieving something one moment, and have it be impossible the next.”

“So? That’s no different from how it was in middle school.” Yamaguchi was back to looking confused.

“Yamaguchi, if everyone knows I can see that, it will completely change how they go about their studies here. They’ll look for answers I can’t provide, even if I wanted to.”

Yamaguchi hummed, thinking over what he had said before responding. “That doesn’t change that we’re all supposed to be a team.”

“Well, then how about this: what about the other part? How would a team feel, knowing that I see everything they hate about themselves before even getting to know them at all?”

Yamaguchi chuckled half-heartedly. “That would have been quite the first impression.”

“Exactly. Look, I’ll go explain to the teachers before class tomorrow, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to tell anybody yet. I can still use it though, like I said. It’s not like it’s really in any of the teachers’ areas of expertise to help me expand on it anyway.”

Yamaguchi sighed, shaking his head, “Fine.”

Kei nodded, gratefully turning back to his notes. They didn’t talk more on the subject.

When he returned to his own room that night after dinner, the arguing next door had mercifully stopped. He was just about to go to sleep when his phone buzzed from across the room. He groaned; normally he would have just reached over, but the bandages on his arms, though mainly cautionary at this point, reminded him not to do that. He got up and walked over to his desk to squint at the words on the screen.

                **From: Yamaguchi**

Night Tsukki : ) See u tomorrow

Kei smiled, despite being nervous for the next day and the conversation it might hold, and shot off a quick reply.  

                **To: Yamaguchi**

                Goodnight, Yamaguchi.

Sighing, he walked back over to his bed, flopping back under the covers. If nothing else good came out of tomorrow, at least Yamaguchi might not be as upset with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty sure it won't come up in the story, but I feel it's necessary to make it known that, in this au, Mineta is currently in prison for sexual assault and is being routinely beat up by the other inmates on a daily basis.  
> I really am sorry it took so long to get this out! The next chapter will be out before the end of the month. Now that I've got the ball rolling, updates should be pretty regular for the rest of the summer. :)  
> Thank you all for waiting so long, I love you all! If you're still upset about the long wait, come yell at me on tumblr. it's the same username as on here (I'm sorry i don't know how to add a link DX)

**Author's Note:**

> I think I'm going to continue this on as a full multi chaptered fic that will follow the same structure and the BNHA manga, but taking place in current day. Deku did say in the first issue that this took place in the past and is in fact his origin story, so this takes place once he has risen to the title of top hero.


End file.
